What’s a mother to do when she wants to surrender to summer, to sleep in or read a book, to relax for once, and her children need her?
What’s a mother to do when she wants space, and her children want to cuddle and chat and play with her?
What’s a mother to do when she thirsts for peace and time alone, while her children seek interaction?
I once scheduled every minute of every day, but that method exhausted me. Letting my children do whatever they want all day left them so untethered, that everyone deteriorated into tears (me) or tantrums (them). I found a compromise. A simple, three-step plan.
- Plan One Interesting Thing
- Do It
- Relax
When my kids were of an age that they needed planned activities, I would schedule one thing to do per day. We would eat a good breakfast, then head out to do something interesting. Our things to do were not generally expensive, far away, or complicated. We might go to a park with great play structures, walk a nature trail, go to the zoo, or visit a museum. I usually ended our outings with a high-protein snack. When we got home, everyone had been sufficiently exercised, fed, and stimulated to happily do their own thing for a while.
Ideas for the One Cool Thing
Swan Mothers 
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